Russia bans handset sales without local software, threatening Apple operations in Russia

Even with a number of recent setbacks (both politically and economically), Russia still an important market for Apple. It turns out that with the approval of a new law in the largest country in the world, Ma's operations may be threatened there.

The information is from BBC: At the beginning of this month, the Russian Federal Assembly passed a law, created by a group of legislators, obliges all electronic devices sold in the country to have pre-installed russian software.

In other words, any manufacturers who want to sell products like smartphones, tablets, computers or smart TVs in the country will need to include local apps on their devices. Companies may ship devices with their traditional software, but Russian apps must also be present in internal memory at the time of sale.

According to lawmakers, the idea is to strengthen local industry, to give Russian consumers a wider range of choices when choosing their digital services, while minimizing the "western influence" on Russian society, the country led by Vladimir Putin, as is well known. , has been waging a crusade to resurrect Russian nationalism as a source of national pride (and including in the package high doses of racism, xenophobia and homophobia) and restore the global power status of the Soviet Union era.

The law brings its fair share of problems in many ways, such as potential threats to the privacy of Russian citizens. For Apple, however, the other issue is that such an obligation could basically prevent Apple from operating in the country, as it is not part of the modus operandi The company is selling products with pre-installed software other than its own.

If Apple were to give in and pre-install Russian software on iPhones and Macs sold in the country, it would be setting a dangerous precedent: these applications would not even be screened by the App Store approval team, reaching out directly to local consumers. This, of course, raises all sorts of questions about privacy and digital security, and the last thing Ma wants to get involved in is another government spying case.

Therefore, if nothing changes under law until the beginning of its intended vigor to be initiated in July next year , the only solution for Apple (and other companies that disagree with the imposition) is to cease selling products on the Russian market. We will see, of course, how the situation goes in the coming months.

via AppleInsider